What is a line? II

Ok, so it's took me quite a while to get into this brief as I've been quite lost, but I'm getting really involved with it now and things are coming together a little bit. The definition I decided to investigate was, "A mark indicating position, connection or boundaries". I've looked into quite a few different interpretations but the one that intrigues me the most is maps and contour lines.

An old map of my home town, Doncaster.

I love looking at how everything used to be. What was there and whats there now. It's unbelievable how much it's changed, how much more roads and buildings have been built.

I much prefer old maps though. The old, worn out paper and the delicacy of the lines. They are far much more interesting to look at.

Crit.

I had my crit this morning, and my concept has completely changed, again. Everyone seemed to like the door illustrations that I did for the 32 page book, and said it would be a waste if I didn't use them, so I'm going to do. I'm quite happy actually as I did initially want to use them but I was really struggling to find a way to make them interesting. I've been given a few ideas now though, and I'm quite eager to get on with it, I just need to do a little bit more research.

So, I think now I'm just going to produce one big book. I've got 32 illustrations already so I think I need to start playing around with layouts as I may have 100 pages of the same thing. I'm still a little unsure of how I'm going to make it interesting, but hopefully that will come to me when I start experimenting.

'100' Update.

Just a quick update of where I'm at with this '100' project. I've decided to split my book up into sections. I'm not sure whether I'm going to do a 'big' book with chapters or 4/5 smaller books yet. This isn't definate but at the moment the sections will include; things that come through your letterbox (junk mail) and possibly peoples opinions, illustrations of doors, different types of components, and an interactive book with different openings and pop ups. I need to experiment with them all though cause I'm a bit unsure if some of them will work. Also, I don't really know how I'm going to make them work as a set if I were to do them as an individual book. My plan is to start thinking about packaging and ways I could make them fit together. As for relating it to 100, altogether there will be 100 visuals, i.e 25 illustrations, 25 pieces of junk mail etc. I didn't want it to be as obvious as '100 pages'.

I've also considered making an audio track of people 'singing' the sound of their door bell. This is if i've got time.

I've made a few books, some not that successful, but one in particular has turned out quite nice. It's my first attempt at Japanese binding and I'm quite pleased. It's not brilliant but now I've tried it I can do a lot better next time. Anyway, here it is.

I completely forgot about a title, and had already bound it before I realised. So I decided to cut it out, with a very blunt knife may I add. Nice idea I think, but I won't be doing it next time lol.

Basically, I've used my photography to play around with different layouts. The information at the side is the place where it is, the town and the date I took the picture. I don't really know if it's going to be any help to my project but I enjoyed doing it.

Psyop.

I've been looking around at the year 3 blogs and I found this. I'm not entirely sure who's blog I got it from but it's produced by the company Psyop. The work on their website is amazing, the photography and illustrations are beautiful, I'll put a link up at the bottom of this post. It really reminded me of what I've been doing with the '100' project. The image below is an add for Adidas.

Just simply using black and white imagery and highlighting elements in cyan. I really love the effect it has and how it clearly indicates the important features.

Links:

Psyop - Persuade, Change, Influence

Japanese Binding.

As i'm looking at handmade books, i've just started looking into Japanese binding. A simple piece of ribbon/string holds the book together. I really love how something so easy to produce can be really effective. It also looks really neat and delicate.

There are many different types of Japanese binding, well, different ways of stitching. These include; double cross-stitch & flat stitch, double irregular flat stitch, double irregular cross-stitch, single cross-stitch, double flat stitch and double cross-stitch. I couldn't tell you what they all are though.

These books are made by Bridget Bullen, a book binder. She has a website where you can order blank books such as journals/sketchbooks/albums and chose the type of binding and what material you want. 

I'm not really sure if it's suitable for my subject yet, though. I've still got a lot of experimenting to do.

Links:

Bridget Bullen

'Mini' book of 100.

Within the 'Book of 100' brief, we were given another small brief to do. It was to create an A5 book of 32 pages, however, it still had to relate to 100. This completely threw me at first, and I really struggled for ideas. It wasn't until the crit on Friday when I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Anyway, I came up with 100 components. Basically, there were 32 doors, and within them doors were 100 components. Components being door handles, bells, letterboxes, windows etc. I highlighted these components underneath the doors in cyan to make it more obvious that they were the '100'. 

I'm quite happy with it. It didn't turn out how I had expected it too, though. I had an image in my head of what I wanted it to look like, and it did look alright on the computer, but when I printed it out it was all over the place. Not bad for my first attempt though. And I got it done on time which is always a bonus.

Here are some of my illustrations.

(Click to open larger image)

I'm really happy with my drawings. I would really like to develop these further and somehow include them in the '100' brief.

After i'd drawn all the doors on illustrator, it took me ages to go back and add in components to make the 100. I actually re-counted on the Monday and realised there was 102 lol. No one noticed though.

Book Design.

I've been looking at how to make my book more interactive. As my subject is doors, I've been investigation ways in which I can make them open or look 3D. A door is an opening, just as a book is, but I'd like to look at more ways I can interpret this into my book.

Here's a few artists I've been looking at.

Ross Stockwell

Kali Tayor

Book of 100 - Statement of intent.

1. State the title & focus of your work in response to the brief.

Title: Doors.

Focus: I will continue to research my chosen subject and use this research to produce a resolution that reflects my own practical and conceptual interests within the field of graphic design.

2. Identify specific areas of research that you intend to investigate and methods that you will use.

The research I already have is; 100 photographs of doors which I have categorised into colours, a list of 100 different types of doors, a questionnaire with 50 participants so far, a few sketches and an image made out of 100 different doors. (See previous post)

First of all I need to collect more secondary research including artists work, facts, figures etc. I need to collect more of a variation of doors, photographing the different types of doors rather than just the doors I find interesting. With these photos I intend to experiment more with different categories, including age, size, materials etc. I would also like to experiment with line drawings using illustrator. 

I also plan to look more into door components (i.e. bells, knockers, letterboxes, locks, windows etc).

Pop up and fold out books seem to be quite relevant to my subject area as doors are an 'opening'. I plan to investigate the different ways of using paper to create a 'flap' in order to represent a door.

3. Identify specific practical methods and technical processes that you intend to use in order to visually develop your ideas.

I plan to use a variety of different mediums including photography, drawing/sketching, painting and collage. I will also be using software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign in order to edit my photographs and create images.

4. What methods will you use to evaluate the progress and success of your work?

Group crits will play a big part in this project as a way of gaining feedback on the development of my work. I will keep an ongoing visual and written evaluation in my sketchbook, along with constantly asking students and tutors for opinions and advice.

Lines in Typography.

I've been looking into typography and how it's made up of lines. I've downloaded loads of fonts. These are a few of my favourites.

(Click to see at larger scale)

I've been thinking of possibly making my own font made up of lines, but I'm not sure yet. There are still loads of other possibilities.

Lines of Letters.

Letterpress poster by Cameron Moll.

Really like how the typography has been lined up to produce this image of a building.

Christmas project - Doors.

So, we were given another research project to do over the Christmas holidays where we are to produce a body of work that investigates the term/concept/number '100' by collecting, recording, documenting and categorising. 

It could be any object of our choice and I chose doors. I really don't know what I was thinking. I mean, I do like doors, the big old doors like on Churches and old buildings, but they really aren't that interesting and I have no idea how i'm going to make them sound interesting for the 2 minute presentation on Monday. 

I'm a little lost with the '100' thing too. I have 100 photos, 100 different types of doors, nearly 100 questionnaire results, quite a few sketches which i'm going to try and make 100, but is that enough? I'm so confused. Lol.

Anyway, here's a contact sheet of my 100 pictures of doors..

Most of them are quite old but I think i've got a nice variety of colours.

I've been doing a bit of experimenting and I came across a program which creates a digital photo mosaic, a photo made up of other photos. Basically, you chose the photo you want to make, and select the folder including all images you want to use, and it does it for you.

A door made up of 100 different doors. It didn't work as well as i'd expected though. I would of preferred the images to have been bigger but obviously the bigger the images the less detailed the door gets. Was interesting to play about with though. 

I've experimented with a few categories for my photos, but the one that seems to work the best is colours. The blue, green and red doors work really well, however the other colours don't seem to stand out as much. I think it's down to the quality of my photos as some have a blue tinge to them. Also, as it's winter, most of them were taken in the dark.

I decided to show my results like this. Basically each circle represents a door and it's colour. 

Continuous Lines II.

I took the drawing of the duck into illustrator and traced over it. I added lines at eaither side to make it more obvious that it's a continuous line.

I think it would be nice if I were to produce a book of these, and have it so the lines would meet up at the end of each page. A continuous line throughout the whole book.

Continuous Lines.

These are a few sketches I did. I focused on animals and drew them without taking my pen off the paper, a continuous line.

Buttons.

I love buttons and have quite a healthy collection of them. I thought these would be ideal to experiment with for 'what is a line'.

I've thought about doing a stop animation, adding another button in each frame, but I'm not sure yet.

Outlines.

What is a book?

Dictionary definition:

-noun

a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc.

a division of a literary work, esp. one of the larger divisions.

Music. the text or libretto of an opera, operetta, or musical.

a script or story for a play.

Cards. the number of basic tricks or cards that must be taken before any trick or card counts in the score.

a set or packet of tickets, checks, stamps, matches, etc., bound together like a book.

Extended definition from Wikipedia:

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated or blank sheets, made of paper or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book.

Books may also refer to a literature work, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers.

I do love books, especially sketchbooks as i've mentioned before. I've bought loads but unfortunately i've never really got round to making my own, I do intend to though. I much prefer handmade books, the effort put in to make them makes them more authentic.

I have my own collection of miniature books, i've had them since I was very little and have always been fond of them. There's about 80 pages in each of them, they can be quite hard to read though as obviously the font is very small.

I do have more but these are the only ones i've been able to find. 

Lines.

I found this on Seven Days Make a Week and thought the use of line was quite interesting.

I wouldn't normally like this sort of thing but what I do really like is how the white lines are placed over the silhouette, so it becomes shapes rather than lines.